Ahead of the release of the full report in December, Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) released a preliminary summary of its recent key findings about the state of game development earlier this month. It includes one especially notable figure suggesting that 85.8 percent of Japanese game developers are actively using generative AI in their work.
These figures come from a survey of game developers conducted at the Japanese game developers conference CEDEC and are a significant rise from the findings of last year’s report, which stated that just 51 percent of developers were using the technology. This usage covers both the generation of assets, as well as the use of tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and others for more generic admin work. (The use of AI by Japanese studios to generate assets has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks following a presentation from Dark Cloud and Professor Layton developer Level-5 that fans suspected was riddled with AI-generated images.) Of those using the tools, 63 percent report using the technology daily, while 22.8 percent use it only occasionally. A further 8.6 percent noted their companies have introduced guidance regarding the use of the technology. A total of 1349 developers responded for the study.
According to the survey, most of them reported seeing a benefit from using the technology. Many noted it reduced production time and costs, with 837 claiming it expanded creativity and 738 claiming it lowered technical barriers. However, only 147 stated the technology actually benefited the end-user experience.
There are some caveats to be aware of with this survey. It’s made up of individual developers, meaning it can count numerous developers from the same company with identical policies, and doesn’t factor in a breakdown of overall AI usage by company. In CESA’s own survey of their member companies, 74 percent reporting having policies on the use of generative AI. There was a roughly even split between companies that were not using generative AI (27 of those surveyed) and those that did use it in some form (26). Only 12 companies used it for visual assets, with even fewer using it for things like story, localization, QA, or programming.
The use of generative AI in the Japanese gaming industry is certainly charting upwards, but more notable are the ways in which companies are establishing firm policies governing how it can be used and implemented. A lot of these policies have come in response to mixed player feedback and concerns shared online. Though support for these technologies is stronger in East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, global backlash, as seen with games like Crazy Taxi: World Tour, suggests gaming companies will have to be more thoughtful about the implementation of AI than companies in some other industries that are racing to leverage it for productivity gains and workforce cuts.